Google’s plan to integrate its ultra-woke artificial intelligence model, Gemini, into its search engine has sent shockwaves through the news publishing industry, raising concerns about the potential “catastrophic” impact on traffic and revenue.
CNN reports that on Tuesday, Google unveiled its plan to revolutionize the search experience by using AI to directly answer user queries at the top of results pages. While this development may seem convenient for users not familiar with Gemini’s ultra-woke politics, it has left news publishers grappling with the potential consequences. Many in the industry fear that the revamped search experience will lead to a significant decrease in audience engagement, as users will no longer need to click on links to find the information they seek.
Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc., during the Google I/O Developers Conference in Mountain View, California, US, on Wednesday, May 10, 2023.Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Danielle Coffey, the chief executive of the News/Media Alliance, which represents more than 2,000 news publishers, expressed her concerns to CNN, stating, “This will be catastrophic to our traffic, as marketed by Google to further satisfy user queries, leaving even less incentive to click through so that we can monetize our content.” Coffey also highlighted the power imbalance between publishers and the dominant search engine, noting that they have to adhere to Google’s terms, even when it directly competes with their content.
The announcement comes at a time when the news industry is already grappling with numerous challenges, including steep traffic declines and the rapid development of AI technology. Since the launch of ChatGPT more than a year ago, publishers have been worried about the impact of AI on their businesses but have had little time to plan their responses due to the breakneck pace of technological advancements.
Some newsrooms have cautiously partnered with technology giants, such as the Financial Times striking deals with OpenAI to license their content archives. Others, like the New York Times, have taken a more aggressive stance, filing a lawsuit against the ChatGPT creator.
Google has argued that the AI changes will benefit news companies by showing more links with its AI Overviews feature and improving the search product to send more traffic to web publishers. However, given Silicon Valley’s track record with publishers, this statement has been met with skepticism.
Marc McCollum, chief innovation officer at Raptive, which provides services to thousands of content creators and businesses, expressed his doubts, stating, “Our initial analysis suggests it will significantly reduce search traffic to content creators’ websites, directly impacting their ad revenue and, by extension, their livelihoods. This change could put the future of the open internet in danger.”
Read more at CNN here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.